What did Joe Biden promise during his presidency that never happened, or he lied about
Executive summary
President Joe Biden entered office on a slate of 99 tracked campaign promises; multiple independent trackers conclude a mixed record in which dozens were either compromised, stalled or rated plainly broken — PolitiFact/Poynter counted 34 promises they judged broken by their methodology [1] [2]. Specific high-profile shortfalls cited across fact‑checking, advocacy and partisan outlets include unmet immigration reforms, unfulfilled ethics changes, and promises affected by the controversial pardon of Hunter Biden, with reporting highlighting both objective ratings and partisan framings of those outcomes [3] [4] [5].
1. Broken-by-the-numbers: the tracker verdict
PolitiFact’s Biden Promise Tracker monitored 99 major campaign pledges and, in its final accounting summarized by Poynter, found that Biden “kept 33 promises, compromised on 32, and broke 34” — a metrics‑based verdict that measures outcomes, not intentions [1] [2]. That numerical conclusion is an inventory, not an explanation, and the tracker explicitly classifies promises across categories — kept, compromise, stalled, in the works — which frames “broken” as failure to achieve the stated outcome rather than necessarily deliberate deception [1] [2].
2. The pardon that turned a pledge into a broken promise
One individual action illustrates how executive choices can convert a pledge into a recorded failure: PolitiFact and Al Jazeera report that Biden’s pardon of his son led them to rate his campaign promise to prevent White House interference in federal investigations as “broken,” because the pardon was judged to contradict that commitment [3] [2]. FactCheck adds nuance by noting that some promises that did not require Congress still proved “tricky to keep,” underscoring how one high‑profile choice can reshape legacy ratings [6].
3. Ethics and transparency: promises unmet, critics note
Advocates tracking ethics reforms say the administration made some early strides — for example, a sweeping ethics executive order — but failed to follow through on a broader slate of campaign commitments, leaving gaps on lobbying reform and structural accountability that watchdogs like the Campaign Legal Center call “unfulfilled” [4]. That assessment is targeted: CLC praises certain moves while arguing that missing institutional appointments and legislation have hindered fuller ethics reform [4].
4. Immigration: progressive expectations versus policy reality
Immigrant‑rights groups and campaigning sites accuse the administration of breaking core immigration promises — for instance, failing to terminate certain enforcement agreements and moving toward asylum restrictions that activists say echo Trump‑era tactics — messaging that frames Biden as having retreated from campaign commitments on humane immigration reform [5] [7]. Independent legal and policy coverage shows the terrain was shaped both by legal constraints and political tradeoffs, but the advocacy evidence documents concrete unfulfilled demands [5] [7].
5. Partisan tallies and political messaging
Republican research and GOP communications produced lists of “broken promises” that emphasize different items — Keystone XL cancellation, border conditions, taxation rhetoric — often framing Biden as governing contrary to pledges of unity and nonpartisanship [8] [9] [10]. These partisan inventories are fact‑rich but driven by political aims: they select grievances to persuade voters and are therefore best read alongside neutral trackers and watchdogs to separate evaluative framing from verified outcome [8] [9] [10].
6. Nuance from the fact‑checkers: promises, partial wins and misstatements
FactCheck.org found examples where Biden did enact parts of his agenda but overstated their effect — such as capping insulin costs while exaggerating projected Medicare savings — and where symbolic acts (like pardons for possession or D.C. convictions) did not produce the sweeping legal outcomes promised [6]. These examinations underscore a pattern: some pledges were met in form but not in the fuller outcome voters were led to expect, while others were derailed by political constraints or executive choices [6].
7. What this record actually tells voters
The most defensible conclusion across sources is not a single binary of “lied” versus “kept” but a fragmented reality: independent trackers documented dozens of broken promises by outcome‑based criteria, watchdogs highlighted unfulfilled ethics and immigration commitments, and partisan lists amplified specific grievances — each perspective carries its own evidentiary and political agenda, so the combined record shows substantive shortfalls without proving universal bad faith [1] [2] [4] [5] [8].